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1 – 10 of 511The purpose of this study is to empirically weigh the evidence for financial depth, liquidity and efficiency role to economic growth, and test for the existence of cointegration…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to empirically weigh the evidence for financial depth, liquidity and efficiency role to economic growth, and test for the existence of cointegration between financial development variables and economic growth in Tanzania.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used the autoregressive distributed lag model with bound testing procedures. The sample covered yearly time-series data from 1980 to 2017, i.e. 38 years.
Findings
The results suggest that financial system depth is positively related to economic growth in the short run and that financial system liquidity and efficiency is strongly negatively associated with economic growth both in the short and long run. Further, it is found that financial development is cointegrated with economic growth. Thus, financial reforms and liberalisation have not fully brought the desired positive effects on economic growth yet.
Originality/value
The study uses principal component analysis to capture specific dimensions within the financial system as an intuitive way to aggregate financial development effects. Unlike studies that included several countries with heterogeneous characteristics, which are sometimes difficulty to homogenise, in recognition of countries’ unique experiences, this study uses data from Tanzania as a specific case. It documents pertinent pieces of evidence for a developing economy necessary for financial policy adjustments post the financial and economic liberalisation and reforms period. It nevertheless sheds light on financial policies for other comparable developing economies during and after both financial and economic liberalisation settings.
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Mohammad Ismail Hossain and Wim Verbeke
Rice is staple food for Bangladeshi people. Although rice markets were liberalized in 1992, the government continued to intervene in this sector. This study examines the farmers’…
Abstract
Rice is staple food for Bangladeshi people. Although rice markets were liberalized in 1992, the government continued to intervene in this sector. This study examines the farmers’ and private traders’ response in liberalized rice marketing system in two regions. 40 farmers and 20 traders were interviewed by using a structural questionnaire for collecting the necessary information. The liberalization of the rice market, in particular, has been embraced more by the private traders then by the farmers. Although there has been a rapid emergence of private traders, the emergence of a vibrant trading sector that would fill the gap left by the state has been slow. The rice market is segmented with the private traders supplying different market circuits. Farmers on the other have not responded positively due to the lack of capital, lack of storage facilities, lack of market information, dominance of intermediaries and low price during the harvest period. Most of the farmers are unwilling to expand their acreage due to the family requirements of other crops. In rural remote areas where the road infrastructure is poor, private sector marketing activities have not yet emerged. Thus government can foster private participation and market integration by improving the road and storage infrastructure. Furthermore, government needs to take measures that strengthen the agricultural price and marketing information system targeted at both farmers and traders.
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The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the impact of financial development on poverty reduction in Egypt. The paper also investigates whether financial development…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the impact of financial development on poverty reduction in Egypt. The paper also investigates whether financial development affects poverty via gross domestic product (GDP) growth.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses the autoregressive distributed lag approach to estimate two specifications. The first is dependent on poverty by the ratio domestic credit to the private sector (percentage of GDP) and the second is dependent on the poverty by the ratio liquid liabilities to GDP or M3/GDP. The data are annual and cover the period from 1980 to 2015.
Findings
In long run, the study finds that relationship between economic growth and poverty is bidirectional. Financial development and poverty (household final consumption expenditure per capita) are complementary as bidirectional (in Granger sense). In short run, the study finds the bidirectional causality between financial development (real domestic credit to private sector per capita) and poverty reduction.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that governments should remove policies that impede the ability of banks to offer loan products or undermine the commercial incentive structure for banks or borrowers. It is crucial to enhance the role of specialized state-owned banks in financial intermediation.
Social implications
Several attempts have been made to investigate the relationship between financial development and other macroeconomic variables, but few studies have examined the impact of financial development on poverty reduction. Furthermore, the majority of the previous studies are based on Asia and Latin America – affording Egypt very little or no coverage at all.
Seock-Jin Hong and François Domergue
The Korean airline industry continues to change in 20-year cycles structurally. The major changes are in their market through deregulation and liberalization resulting in adding…
Abstract
The Korean airline industry continues to change in 20-year cycles structurally. The major changes are in their market through deregulation and liberalization resulting in adding more carriers, especially low-cost carriers (LCCs) from 2006. The authors categorize three types of LCCs in Korea: (1) independent LCCs, (2) LCCs subsidized by existing airlines as airlines-within-airlines (AwAs), and (3) LCCs supported by conglomerates and local governments. Independent LCCs have suffered financially during the research period from 2009 to 2013, especially from the impaired capital, even though these LCCs are growing rapidly and expanding their markets in domestic and international routes. AwAs’ efficiency is higher than that of independent LCCs, the roles in the market are limited because of cannibalization by their mother company.
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Agwu Sunday Okoro, Augustine Ujunwa, Farida Umar and Angela Ukemenam
This paper examines the impact of regional and non-regional trade on economic growth using annual data from Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) member countries for…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the impact of regional and non-regional trade on economic growth using annual data from Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) member countries for the period 2007 to 2017.
Design/methodology/approach
Trade data were decomposed into regional (trade among ECOWAS Member States) and non-regional (trade between ECOWAS Member States and the rest of the world). We used the dynamic system GMM to estimate the models and introduced exchange rate, unemployment rate, population growth and gross capital formation as controlled variables.
Findings
The results revealed that the estimated coefficient of ECOWAS regional trade is statistically significant and positive in predicting growth, while the non-regional trade coefficient is negative and not statistically significant in predicting growth. Other predictors of growth introduced into the model as controlled variables, such as exchange rate, unemployment rate, population growth and gross capital formation, displayed mixed results. More importantly, population growth, unemployment and exchange rate depreciation hurt economic growth, while gross capital formation promotes economic growth.
Practical implications
The findings provide strong support in favour of the Krugman (1991) hypothesis that regional trade agreements (RTAs) are a better alternative to global trade.
Originality/value
Our decision to disaggregate ECOWAS trade is unique and influenced largely by the objective of the study, which is to establish the type of ECOWAS trade that is a good predictor of growth. The evidence from our findings support the theory that RTAs are a better catalyst to economic growth.
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Maria Bruna Zolin, Danilo Cavapozzi and Martina Mazzarolo
Milk is one of the most produced, consumed and protected agricultural commodities worldwide. The purpose of this paper is to assess how trade-opening policies can foster food…
Abstract
Purpose
Milk is one of the most produced, consumed and protected agricultural commodities worldwide. The purpose of this paper is to assess how trade-opening policies can foster food security in the Chinese milk sector.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical evidence proposed in our paper is based on time series data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China (2019) and FAOSTAT (2020). Differences in income elasticity between urban and rural areas are estimated by OLS regressions. The data also provide empirical evidence to assess to what extent and to which countries China is resorting to meet its growing demand.
Findings
Per-capita milk consumption of Chinese is rising. The authors’ estimates show that milk income elasticity is higher in rural areas. China is also progressively increasing its dependence on imports. Producers who benefit the most are those from countries implementing trade-opening policies.
Research limitations/implications
Other methods could be applied, by way of example, the gravitational model.
Practical implications
Trade agreements and the removal of barriers could be effective responses to protectionist pressures and to food security concerns.
Social implications
The case examined is of particular interest as it intervenes on food security and safety.
Originality/value
The paper adds value and evidence to the effects of trade on food security in a country with limited and exploited natural resources addressing a health emergency and environmental concerns.
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This paper aims to enhance the understanding of the role of Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) policies for cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) by…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to enhance the understanding of the role of Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) policies for cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) by distinguishing between coercive and noncoercive OFDI policies.
Design/methodology/approach
The dependent variable is the count of completed M&A transactions, measured monthly. Due to the nature of the study’s data, the author performs a zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) regression.
Findings
Separating between coercive and noncoercive policies, the author finds that the latter type shows a stronger supportive effect on the count of M&A deals. Considering firm ownership, the study’s results reveal that announcements of coercive policies have a weaker effect on cross-border M&A for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) than that for private-owned enterprises (POEs). For local SOEs (LSOEs) and central SOEs (CSOEs), this difference becomes even larger with noncoercive policy announcements. The influence on M&A of both policy types gets partially replaced with increasing internationalization experience.
Originality/value
Combining institutional theory with policy change theory, the author argues that international business (IB) research on policy change needs to consider the integration of theoretical policy-level approaches to catch the effects of policy change on firm internationalization appropriately. The findings of the study support this argument by highlighting that the policy effect differs by policy type.
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Michael Asiamah, Daniel Ofori and Jacob Afful
The factors that determine foreign direct investment (FDI) are important to policy-makers, investors, the banking industry and the public at large. FDI in Ghana has received…
Abstract
Purpose
The factors that determine foreign direct investment (FDI) are important to policy-makers, investors, the banking industry and the public at large. FDI in Ghana has received increased attention in recent times because its relevance in the Ghanaian economy is too critical to gloss over. The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of FDI in Ghana between the period of 1990 and 2015.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employed a causal research design. The study used the Johansen’s approach to cointegration within the framework of vector autoregressive for the data analysis.
Findings
The study found a cointegrating relationship between FDI and its determinants. The study found that both the long-run and short-run results found statistically significant negative effects of inflation rate, exchange rate and interest rate on FDI in Ghana while gross domestic product, electricity production and telephone usage (TU) had a positive effect on FDI.
Research limitations/implications
The study found a cointegrating relationship between FDI and its determinants. The study found that both the long-run and short-run results found statistically significant negative effects of inflation rate, exchange rate and interest rate on FDI in Ghana whiles gross domestic product, electricity production and TU had a positive effect on FDI.
Practical implications
This study has potential implication for boosting the economies of developing countries through its policy recommendations which if implemented can guarantee more capital inflows for the economies.
Social implications
This study has given more effective ways of attracting more FDI into countries which in effect achieve higher GDP and also higher standard of living through mechanisms and in the end creating more social protection programs for the people.
Originality/value
Although studies have been conducted to explore the determinants of FDI, some of the core macroeconomic variables such as inflation, interest rate, telephone subscriptions, electricity production, etc., which are unstable and have longstanding effects on FDI have not been much explored to a give a clear picture of the relationships. Therefore, a study that will explore these and other macroeconomic variables to give clear picture of their relationships and suggest some of the possible ways of dealing with these variables in order to attract more FDI for the country to achieve its goal is what this paper seeks to do.
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Habib Sekrafi and Asma Sghaier
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of corruption on the environmental quality in Tunisia. Indeed, the post-revolution period is characterized by a remarkable…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of corruption on the environmental quality in Tunisia. Indeed, the post-revolution period is characterized by a remarkable increase in the rates of corruption.
Design/methodology/approach
The direct and indirect effects of control corruption on economic growth and CO2 emissions in Tunisia have been examined using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) cointegration framework among corruption, growth and CO2 emissions.
Findings
Results substantiate a positive and significant relationship between control of corruption and economic growth, a negative and significant relationship between control of corruption and environmental quality (CO2) and a negative and significant relationship between control of corruption and energy consumption. The findings suggest that while the control of corruption contributes to economic growth, its positive effect could be transposed indirectly via its impacts on environmental quality.
Originality/value
A strategy against corruption will reduce CO2 emissions; however, its positive effect on economic growth indirectly contributes to reverse this relationship.
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Trade and environment are essential issues closely related to the development of the national economy and the improvement of people’s livelihood in the new era. The Report to the…
Abstract
Purpose
Trade and environment are essential issues closely related to the development of the national economy and the improvement of people’s livelihood in the new era. The Report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) listed the construction of a strong trading power as an important part of building a modern economic system and pollution prevention and treatment as one of the three key battles to win the decisive victory of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. However, the relationship between trade and environmental pollution is still very controversial in the existing literature, and there is a paucity of literature on the relationship between trade and environmental pollution based on micro data.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper merged China’s Firm-Level Pollution Database with China’s Industrial Enterprise Database and China’s industry tariff rates. Additionally, by virtue of the quasi-natural experiment of China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), a difference in difference (DID) model was constructed to alleviate the endogeneity issue.
Findings
According to the results, the trade barrier decrease (trade liberalization) significantly reduces the intensity of SO2 emissions, a major pollutant of enterprises, as the intensity of SO2 emissions decreased 2.16% for each unit decrease of the trade barrier. The analysis of the mechanisms shows that the SO2 emission intensity of enterprises is mainly due to the decrease of enterprises’ pollution emission rather than the decrease of output, and the decrease of enterprises’ pollution emission is mainly caused by the enterprises’ cleaner production process rather than the end treatment of pollution emission. The decrease of coal use intensity is an important mechanism of the decrease of SO2 emission intensity caused by the decrease of trade barriers. Among the technical effects of the change of the trade barrier affecting enterprises’ pollution emission, biased technical change rather than neutral technical change dominates.
Originality/value
The findings of this paper imply that expanding openness can enhance China’s social welfare not only through the economic growth mechanisms identified in the classical literature, but also through environmental improvements. This provides useful policy insights for promoting the construction of a strong trading power and winning the battle against pollution in the new era.
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